Retail
Color News and Views from Pantone
I just recently received the premiere newsletter from Pantone, called TONES and it’s all about color news and views. Do you ever think about color, and how many different applications it is applied to…from paper through textiles? It’s very interesting to find out what views people have across different industries. Good example: in print, you want the whitest paper to help make your design pop but in fashion, “You never wear white after Labor Day.” Check out the newsletter; it gave me some great insights into areas that I never thought about. Wonderful world of colors, which ones do you see?
Growing Peer Influence at the Retail Level?
While I don’t shop a whole lot, I have noted that my retail experiences lately have been unusual…not because of the stores or the brands I’m buying…but because of the behavior of my fellow shoppers.
On a visit to a home improvement center, I was stopped in the parking lot by a puzzled looking lady who had a cart full of cabinet and tile samples. “What do you think,?” she asked me. This question turned into a quarter hour conversation as we compared our remodeling experiences and design preferences. Apparently just talking things through eased her mind and she left more confident of her choices.
Then there was the group of ladies I saw huddled around the yogurt at the grocery store yesterday. Pretending to consider which egg brand was worthy of a trip home with me, I eavesdropped on their discussion. They covered probiotic vs. Greek vs. store brand yogurts…concluding with one woman’s endorsement of a yogurt available at Trader Joe’s. To my amusement, the advice of one shopper had two of the ladies decide to forego their yogurt purchase entirely.
Later that day at the mall, a fellow shopper conspiratorially advised me that, if I wasn’t in a hurry, the book I was considering was available from Amazon for a fraction of the cost.
Peer influence can make or break the sale, and most of this influence happens offline. Interactions with fellow retail shoppers seems to be happening much more frequently for me, lately. It has got me wondering…what has changed? Could it be that our fluency with online social networks is reshaping our offline shopping behavior in a significant way? Is the ease with which we solicit peer opinions at the retail level growing? If so, how should savvy retailers harness this at the store level?
Social media enables the food truck revolution
Street-Za from Milwaukee
One of the hot, hot, hot topics at this year’s National Restaurant Association Show was mobile cuisine– a.k.a food trucks. We’re not talking about those silver cup-of-joe trucks parked by construction sites. We’re talking highly graphic trucks serving creative cuisine on wheels. A couple of the high-image trucks were parked on the show floor and drew thousands who waited in long lines to step through the trucks and hear about Mobi Munch’s unique package of mobile food services, including a web portal and interactive social media-based platforms used to connect this growing community. Could there be a better match? Social goes mobile for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mobi Munch’s website will offer real-time tracking of trucks, nationwide food truck listings, ratings and full-on social networking. I can’t wait for this concept to grow. For such a foodie town, Chicago has yet to get this idea rolling but we’re counting on Matt Maroni htt://bit.ly/cmrdcJ, who runs a “naan-wich” place to persuade city council to get behind this trend by updating some rules and regs governing mobile food vendors. Hurry. Summer’s already here.
Fun and funny at the National Restaurant Association Show
The winning Tor Rey bag
Every trade show has its favorite Show Bags–those holders of the still-popular paper brochures, promotional tschotskes and general stuff. At the National Restaurant Association Show this past weekend, the most popular were messenger bags with wide straps worn sideways across the chest with the bag resting on the hips and butt. I predict the messenger show bag will be everywhere next year—you heard it here first!
Best in show and everywhere: TOR REY, a roomy red messenger bag
Runner up: Front of the House, a lime green messenger bag
Honorable mention: Alibaba, great design on a large, plastic coated orange bag
Now, of the 20 or so people I stopped to ask about their TOR-REY bags, not one said they were a real prospect for the company’s food equipment products. At least they carried the brand.
Love the buffalo
OK, you gotta love the restaurants that go for the outsized, outlandish and just plain out of this world ways to proclaim their individuality. Hence, the need for life-size, animated characters that speak to you while they are 1) nodding and waving 2) shakily holding a tray of drinks that appear about to fall off or 3) speaking and blowing smoke out of their large nostrils while waving their head back and forth in a menacing manner –that would be the talking buffalo head. Characters Unlimited would be happy to supply you with those and dozens more to amuse your guests. I think Charlie Trotters needs to lighten up and go for the smoke-exhaling buffalo immediately.
Restaurant industry gets its healthy eating on
Healthy options from Grecian Delight
We’re back from the biggest event of the year for the food service industry, the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago. While there were plenty of fatty, calorific offerings (thank goodness), there was also lots of talk in the seminars about fresh ingredients, healthier menu options and the products on the show floor making it happen. The big mainstream companies are on board, as are smaller global cuisine houses and an entire Gluten-Free Showcase Pavilion of over 30 companies focused exclusively on gluten-free food items that actually taste good– we sampled! The Pavilion was a first at this year’s show.
The Online Impact at the Grocery Store
Cereal Scan iPhone app
This type of mobile usage is just starting to catch fire. I’ve been loading apps for scanning as soon as they were available. Red Laser crashed my iPhone on its inaugural day; but updates have shown continual improvement. Good Guides also has a scanner app, telling you not only nutritional information, but company’s social and sustainability records as well. Food Scanner is ok, it keeps a food diary for you if you want it to, but I’ve found that its database isn’t populated with most of the stuff that I eat. I do track my food intake, though, through Lose It. But that’s another story.
A recent Deloitte study (conducted in March, 2010 and just released last week) indicates that 7% of those surveyed are using mobile apps at the grocery store. Why? To compare prices, redeem coupons, find discounts, read product reviews and of course, get nutritional information either through an app or by linking directly to a company/product website.
I’m forever fascinated by the differences in grocery shopping habits between men and women. Mobile usage for food shopping is no different. Overwhelmingly, men use mobile apps to retrieve discounts (53% vs. 38%) and compare prices (59% vs. 49%).
Women use mobile apps most to obtain nutritional information (36% vs. 18).
Armed with information, 23% of those surveyed said that they have bought a food item because of something read on line; and 22% said that they’ve “not purchased a food product as a result of something read online.”
Pat Conroy from Deloitte stated, “Consumers realize their shopping choices have expanded, giving them the ability to be more selective about their purchases based on a variety of criteria. The question companies are asking now is, ‘Will this more critical eye towards purchasing be the new norm or just a passing result of the economic downturn?’”.
